Director of Istanbul Biennial Steps Down Amid Curator Controversy

The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), organizer of the Istanbul Biennial, today announced the impending departure of longtime biennial director Bige Örer. Örer, who curated the 2022 Turkish Pavilion at the Fifty-Ninth Venice Biennale and is vice president of the International Biennial Association, has overseen the event since 2008. She will officially leave her role on January 15, 2024. “We warmly thank Bige Örer for her contribution throughout the years and wish her every success in her future endeavors,” wrote the IKSV.

The organization confirmed that the Eighteenth Istanbul Biennial would take place as planned, and that a new director would be announced shortly.RelatedMET RECEIVES MAJOR GIFT FROM DICK WOLFCARLO SCARPA VASE BOUGHT AT GOODWILL FOR $4 COMMANDS $107,000 AT AUCTION Örer’s departure comes as the IKSV struggles amid accusations that it improperly appointed celebrated British-born writer, curator, and art historian Iwona Blazwick as curator of the 2024 Istanbul Biennial. In selecting her to lead the event, the IKSV ignored the recommendation of the Biennial’s advisory board. The five-member body unanimously recommended Turkish-born curator Defne Ayas—a cocurator of the 2021 Gwangju Biennial and curator of the 2015 Moscow Biennale in Russia and Lithuania’s 2012 Baltic Triennial—to curate the 2024 iteration. Among the committee members who supported Ayas as curator was Blazwick herself.

Upon being named curator of the event by the IKSV, she resigned from the committee; three of the four remaining members resigned in protest of the IKSV’s decision. At issue are not Blazwick’s qualifications—theformer longtime directorof London’s Whitechapel Gallery, she is currently thechairof the Royal Commission for AlUla’s Public Art Expert Panel in Saudi Arabia—but rather the transparency surrounding the selection process. TheArt Newspaperearlier this year reported that the ISKV had rejected Ayas owing to her curation of the Turkish Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale. The pavilion featured the work of Turkish-born artist Sarkis and was accompanied by a catalogue containing a text by assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s wife, Rachel Dink, mentioning the “Armenian genocide.” The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan does not recognize the genocide and issued a complaint, after which the catalogue was pulled, with the artist placing all remaining copies in a coffin, which he clad in colored glass, titling the sculptureRespiro.

Sarkis was among the 2024 Istanbul Biennial selection committee members who resigned after the ISKV rejected the recommendation of Ayas as curator. The appointment of Blazwick over Ayas has had repercussions farther afield. This past August, Esra Sarıgedik Öktemresignedas curator of the Turkish Pavilion at the Sixtieth Venice Biennale, citing the ISKV’s rejection of Ayas as a reason. Sarıgedik Öktem’s appointment to the prestigious role had already raised eyebrows owing to the fact that she is the dealer of artist Gülsün Karamustafa, who is representing Turkey at the Biennale..